Jenn Pedranti closes out her freshman run on 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' feeling like she's finally found her voice.
Jenn Pedranti has "30 moments" from her debut season on The Real Housewives of Orange County she'd like to go back and handle differently.
"The napkin, for sure," she's quick to namecheck while reflecting on her freshman run with ET. She's referencing an unexpected incident with castmate Tamra Judge, during which Tamra launched a napkin into Jenn's face at high-end sushi spot Nobu, after Jenn warned Tamra to "watch it" when it came to talking about her relationship with boyfriend Ryan Boyajian. Jenn largely just sat there, stunned, after the encounter.
"What had happened before that whole napkin scene is, Tamra and I were downstairs, we were un-mic'd -- there were no cameras -- and she and I were just having conversation and, again, it was Tamra saying, 'I love you, I want to make this right. I want to have fun tonight...'" Jenn recalls. "I am like, 'God! I want to have fun tonight, but you've got to stop coming at me and my relationship, 'cause there is no fun in that,' and we sat down just moments later and she had kind of said something under her breath that I thought, what was that?"
Tamra spent the better part of season 17 voicing her concerns about Jenn's relationship, calling Ryan a "playboy" and claiming he vowed to hook up with Tamra -- who's been married to Eddie Judge since 2013 -- before pursuing Jenn, whom he met at Tamra and Eddie's gym, Cut Fitness, a few years ago. There was also a NSFW pic Ryan "accidentally" sent to a mutual friend of Tamra and Jenn's, Heather Amin, that became a major talking point within the group.
"Heather is definitely who loved to give Tamra all her bullets," Jenn alleges.
Some of the information was news to Jenn, who started seeing Ryan as her own marriage to her now-estranged husband, Will, was fizzling out. Jenn says the Tamra she filmed RHOC with is a "different person" than the woman she considered a friend for years off the show.
"Ryan would tell you, if he was sitting here today, Tamra and Eddie were friends," Jenn explains. "How did these conversations, three years ago, not happen, that happened when the cameras came up? I will tell you, he is super hurt by it -- and the man that I know loves me, loves my kids, takes care of me."
Both Tamra and Eddie claim they were warned about Ryan, with unnamed individuals allegedly telling them Ryan has a penchant for going after married women. Jenn's ultimate wish is that she would've stood up for Ryan more, and listened to Tamra and others less.
"I bought into it," she laments. "I would show up in these all-cast dinners or whatever with all the girls, some new information would be laid out to me and, looking back, I knew the relationship I was in. There was none of that in my real life, but you sit there and it would be, like, Tamra would have something else, or know something else, and you are human. So you're like, do they know something? Is there something going on? I wish I was more steadfast."
Jenn says she became a bit paranoid, returning home to pepper Ryan with questions about the group's latest concerns, interrogations he obliged and, she says, answered honestly.
"I had no idea it was going to trickle down so much on him," she says of the experience of signing onto the show. Bravo extended an invite to Ryan to attend the season 17 reunion, but he declined.
"We went back and fourth," she admits. "There was a part of me that was like, 'Go! I am tired of speaking on your behalf,' and when it came down to it, he said that, 'I am going to sit there, Jenn, and Tamra is going to fire at me all the things, and if I stand up for myself ... I am either going to look like an a**hole that everybody views me to be, to speak to a woman for standing up for myself,' or he just thought, this is a no-win situation."
Jenn and Ryan are still together, seemingly stronger than when they started this reality TV journey together. It's been about a year since they filmed the circus-themed finale party.
"My friends, family, they know us, they love us, they are 100 percent supportive," she declares. "Viewers, you can't fault them. They only know what they see, right? And so they are being told and fed only one thing about this man, and it's not good, and so people have been very kind to me and I think people feel like, 'I like Jenn, but I want Jenn to be careful...' and I can't fault them."
Jenn does feel like she found her voice at the reunion, sharing she got what she needed out of the historically intense taping.
"I was so nervous about reunion," she admits. "You go to reunion and you forget that everybody is there to, like, clarify, and it was my first time, right? Everybody kind of wants to have their piece, and when that happened for me, I wanted to be like, 'And! And! And!' You know, 'I've got more! I've got more!'"
"I hope people feel like they get answers," she adds, though some questions remain. Jenn's not sure where she stands with Tamra today. She's "leery" to call her a friend, and is "not ready" to trust her again. She doesn't like the narrative Tamra's spun about Jenn joining the show, either. Tamra claims she didn't know Jenn had been cast, while Jenn says Tamra coached her through the audition process.
"That was a friendship for me, and I just cannot make sense of it," she says. "After reunion, it was the same thing; everybody was un-mic'd and she comes up and, 'I love you,' and, 'I want to make it right,' but I have sat here so many times in that same conversation, so I don't know."
Jenn thinks time will tell if they can move forward, noting that what she really needs to see from Tamra is action, not just promises to act differently.
"I asked for that lots of times," she points out. "I am a super forgiving person, and I have said, Tamra may have had to come back with a performance. I don't know. I don't know the pressure that was on her, but I would love a conversation about that and an honest apology goes a long way with me."
Tamra returned to RHOC after two years off, unceremoniously fired from the series after season 14. She's admitted to coming in hot to "save" the show, which may be why Jenn feels like she didn't know her friend at all while filming. The two got into it at the reunion, throwing the label "cheater" back and forth. Jenn tossed the word at Tamra because, she says, during the season, Tamra compared her own situation to Jenn's with Ryan. Tamra met Eddie while she was still legally married to her then-husband, Simon Barney.
"I found it so odd that you would flip it on me, and then call me the cheater," Jenn explains. "Well, look in the mirror. I mean, don't do that to me and then take up for me in the same token. Like, 'Oh I did it, too...' but then flip it and throw it in my face."
Tamra's had her own criticisms about Jenn, also claiming Jenn on TV is different from the Jenn she knew in "real life." Tamra called out Jenn for giving herself a Housewife makeover, displaying some personality tweaks she didn't recognize.
"She's not wrong, I have changed," Jenn acknowledges. "I mean, in my marriage, truly, my ex-husband and I were home with kids and foster kids and foster animals, or I took a yoga class, or I went to my studio. That's it. I mean, an outing was Target. Now, I'm in this relationship and I travel, and we go to concerts and we have lots of friends that we have dinners with, so she's not wrong. I have changed."
Tamra also questioned Jenn's new look, saying she never knew her yoga instructor pal to sport designer duds before joining this friend group. She exposed Jenn for wearing faux fashions, claiming her closet was full of "Fanel" and "Fucci."
"Oh, I'll own every bit of it!" Jenn declares. "Through the years, have I gone to parties or whatever and bought a purse or a wallet or something? I have, and I don't really care. I'm not trying to offend anybody, it's material things. If I liked it, I bought it."
Should she get a sophomore season, Jenn's taking note to avoid the knockoffs. She's hopeful for a return, as are RHOC fans. The show's ensemble has been through some turbulent changes over the past few years; the same cast hasn't returned for two seasons in a row since season 11, which was Heather Dubrow's final year in her original run before returning for season 16.
"Sophomore year, I want my own history, because sometimes you feel like you come in and you're the newbie and you really have nothing to contribute to the conversation, because they've done this together, they have friendships and years together and stories," Jenn notes. "So I'm looking forward to my history with them."
Jenn says she's found friendship with Heather since cameras went down. The two bonded on the disastrous cast trip to Mexico, which Heather recapped on Instagram the week it aired, admitting she felt beaten down by a dogpile of attacks on her character from the women. Jenn jumped into the comments section to offer her support.
Jenn sort-of blames Tamra for her lack of connection on-camera with Heather, seeing as Tamra proved to be Heather's biggest adversary throughout filming.
"I viewed it as, oh, she's above, she's better than, she has no need for somebody like me," Jenn rattles off. "Let me tell you, where I sit today, I wish I would've been a better friend to Heather."
As for what's next for Jenn, she's taking life day by day. She continues to share a home with her estranged husband, who comes into town regularly from Oklahoma, where he now resides, to "nest" with their kids: Harrison, 18, Dawson, 15, Greyson, 13, Everleigh, 11, and Dominic, 8.
"Will and I, he is definitely co-parent. That's where we are at; it's co-parenting, it's 100 percent kids, and I don't know if it's my personality, I wish I could move it more towards a friendship," she says. "I miss the friendship. You are with this person for so long, we have these five amazing kids together, but Will will come in -- it's logistics, you know? I go out, and then that's kind of it, that's where we are right now."
The pair's divorce remains in limbo, a "frustrating" process for Jenn.
"I don't know what the problem is," she admits. "Will has completely moved on, in a beautiful relationship. I don't know what the holdup is. It makes zero sense to me. He wants to do it where we're on the up and up, no fighting, yet documents just never get turned in. So, it's like a forever holding pattern."
Will's not a huge fan of Jenn becoming a reality TV star, which could be a contributing factor to the slow-moving process.
"He does feel a type of way about it," she says. "He is very private -- very, very private -- and does not want any negativity his way at all, and his girlfriend is the same. They are very religious, they are very private, they want to protect their image very much, but ... I am kind of like, if you are ready to move on and be married to someone else, then let's finalize this."
Until then, Jenn will be sitting tight and go along for the ride right alongside the audience.
"This is a whole new world of this public opinion, and I've never had that," she says. "Everybody says to me, 'I just hope you'll stay true to who you are,' and I think, coming out of reunion, I just hope that people know I just tried to stay true to who I am."
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 17 reunion airs over the next two Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. The extended and uncensored versions of the reunion will be available next day exclusively on Peacock.
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